Last week the Daily Mail was trumpeting ‘What happened to austerity?’ Thankfully, many others have looked a bit closer at the details of the Autumn statement than the pro-Tory Mail journalists did!

An article in the Sun (of all places) reported the Institute of Fiscal Studies’ findings that some 2.6 million working families will be £1,600 a year worse off because of the Chancellor’s benefit ‘reforms’. They revealed that in-work benefits would be ‘less generous’ for many by the end of the decade.

There is also a 50-50 chance the Chancellor would have to raise taxes because his mini-budget relied on optimistic growth assumptions.

IFS Chief Paul Johnson said ‘This is absolutely not trhe end of austerity. This spending review is still one of the tightest in post-war history.’
IFS expert Andrew Hood stated that welfare spending would still be slashed by £12 billion due to cuts planned to Universal Credit.

So don’t believe anyone who tells you that working families are OK under the Tories. They will continue to ensure that those struggling to make ends meet will be the ones who suffer because of budget cuts, while, of course, the very rich pay less. But why should we be suprised. Under the Tories the rich always get richer and the poor have to pay for it!